A communications device includes a ground plane, a signal source, a filling material and an antenna. The signal source is electrically connected to the ground plane. The antenna has a predetermined metal pattern and is coupled to the signal source. The filling material is a non-conductive material and the filling material and the predetermined metal pattern are bonded heterogeneously via a surface-mount technology.
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1. A communications device, comprising:
a ground plane;
a signal source, electrically connected to the ground plane;
a filling material; and
a predetermined metal pattern coupled to the signal source, wherein the filling material is a non-conductive material and the filling material and the predetermined metal pattern are bonded heterogeneously via a surface-mount technology,
wherein the predetermined metal pattern includes a plurality of antennas separated from each other, which are configured away from an lcd display module to prevent them from being interfered with by system noise,
wherein some of the plurality of antennas are configured at a top end of the communications device, and others of the plurality of antennas are configured on lateral surfaces of the communications device, to form a mimo (Multi-Input Multi-Output) system; and
wherein the communications device further comprises:
a full-metal back cover, wherein the filling material and the predetermined metal pattern are bonded heterogeneously on a top end of the full-metal back cover via the surface-mount technology.
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This application claims priority of Taiwan Patent Application No. 106126208 filed on Aug. 3, 2017, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
The disclosure generally relates to an antenna structure, and more specifically, to an antenna structure for use in a thin and light communications device which occupies a very small space and can maintain good antenna transmission performance.
In existing communication devices, the placement of the antenna must be as far away as possible from the surrounding metal components in order to avoid a loss of electromagnetic waves caused by the metal components affecting the transmission efficiency of the antenna. In notebook computers, a common antenna placement is to configure the antenna around the display module, to avoid taking up space in the main circuit board, and to avoid interference by noise on the main circuit board.
The display module also contains metal components. Therefore, a sufficiently wide distance must be maintained between the antenna and the display module to ensure that the transmission efficiency of the antenna is less susceptible to the influence of the display module. However, such a width requirement limits the size of the visible area of the screen, which in turn affects user experience. In addition, while demand for narrow-border electronic device products is also increasing, such width requirements are not conducive to the efficient design of narrow-border electronic device products.
To solve the problem mentioned above, a novel antenna structure which occupies a very small space and can maintain good antenna transmission performance, while taking into account user experience and the appearance of the electronic device, are proposed.
In order to solve the above technical problem, the invention proposes a communications device. The communications device uses a nano-injection molding technique (NMT) process to integrate the metal radiator of the antenna structure with a filling material, so as to enhance the radiating ability based on the minimal antenna design. In addition, by using the NMT, the antenna structure and appearance of the communications device can be highly integrated and the appearance of the communications device will not be sacrificed, so as to follow market trends and meet consumer preferences (e.g. for a full-metal back cover and a narrow border).
In a preferred embodiment, the invention provides a communications device that includes a ground plane, a signal source, a filling material and an antenna. The signal source is electrically connected to the ground plane. The antenna has a predetermined metal pattern and is coupled to the signal source. The filling material is a non-conductive material and the filling material and the predetermined metal pattern are bonded heterogeneously via a surface-mount technology.
In some embodiments, the filling material is heterogeneously bonded to the ground plane via the surface-mount technology.
In some embodiments, selection of the non-conductive material is determined based on the radiating ability of the antenna.
In some embodiments, the dielectric coefficient of the filling material is between 1 and 5.
In some embodiments, the permeability coefficient of the filling material is 1.
In some embodiments, the loss tangent of the filling material is between 0.002 and 0.02.
In some embodiments, the filling material and the predetermined metal pattern are bonded by using injection technology.
In some embodiments, the predetermined metal pattern is formed on the filling material by using printing technology.
In some embodiments, the communications device further comprises a full-metal back cover. The filling material and the predetermined metal pattern are bonded heterogeneously on the top end of the full-metal back cover via the surface-mount technology.
In some embodiments, the top end of the full-metal back cover is perpendicular to the ground plane.
The invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
In order to illustrate the purposes, features and advantages of the invention, the embodiments and figures of the invention are described in detail below.
However, the height H required by the antennas 11 and 12 is about 7˜10 mm, which actually occupies a great amount of border (or, the frame) area. In this manner, the narrow border (or, narrow frame) requirement cannot be fulfilled. Meanwhile, the design of the appearance of the communications device will be limited when the antenna is configured above the LCD display module 13. In addition, the dielectric coefficient and the loss tangent of the circuit board will also limit the freedom of designing the antenna and thereby decreasing the radiating ability. If the antenna is moved to another place which is close to the host, the transmission efficiency will be decreased since the antenna will receive an excessive amount noises from the main circuit board.
In recent years, demand for narrow borders in communications devices equipped with communication functionality, such as mobile phones, notebook computers, tablet PCs, and the like, has been increasing. Therefore, how to design an antenna which can take up very little space while still maintaining good transmission performance is the goal to be achieved by the invention.
In the embodiments of the invention, a nano-injection molding technique (NMT) is adopted to combine the antenna pattern with the metal housing, which achieves the goal of high integration of the antenna and the housing components and achieves the goal of minimalizing the antenna design. In conventional designs, if the antenna is configured above the LCD display module as shown in
Note that in a conventional communications device such as a notebook computer, plastic materials are generally used to generate a slit to facilitate the radiation of the antenna because a slot antenna is usually used in the back cover of notebook computers. Therefore, such a design does not belong to the scope of full-metal back cover communications devices. In order to avoid the influence of the plastic material on the metallic luster of the back cover, and also to avoid generating holes in the back cover, a demand for full-metal back cover devices has arisen. Here, the full-metal back cover communications device refers to a communications device with a back cover that is completely made of metal materials, and does not contain plastic materials.
The proposed antenna structure can be applied to a communications device with a full-metal back cover, and the antenna can be directly configured at the border of the metal housing: For example, at the top end of the metal housing. As shown in
When the communications device 200 powers up or is being used, the top end 201 generally faces upward to the sky. That is, facing toward the side opposite to where the pivot axis (not shown) connects the back cover to the host, so that the user can face the front surface. The top end 201, the rear surface 203, the lateral surfaces 204 and 205 and/or a portion of the front surface 202 of the metal housing form the device frames of the communications device 200. As discussed above, in the full-metal back cover design, the device frames are made of metal materials.
According to the design concept of the invention, in order to avoid limiting the design freedom of the antenna due to the circuit board material, in the embodiment of the invention, the antenna pattern is determined or defined first, so as to achieve the quality of appearance or to satisfy the strength of the housing. After that, the antenna's performance is adjusted by injecting plastic material with different material parameters.
In addition, the filling material 33 and the ground plane 37 are bonded heterogeneously via the surface-mount technology. The ground plane 37 may be the metal housing of the communications device 300, such as the rear surface of the full-metal back cover as discussed above. The top end that bonding the filling material 33 and the antenna 31 may be perpendicular to the ground plane 37.
The antenna 31 may be placed adjacent to the metal component 36, but is spaced apart by a predetermined distance, for example, by at least 3 mm. In the embodiment of the invention, the metal component 36 may be an LCD display module, an LCD display panel, a battery device, a camera module, a conductor structure, a metal base pan, or another metal component of the communications device 300.
Note that in the conventional antenna design, the material parameters of the circuit board or the substrate on which the antenna pattern is printed must be determined first, and then the antenna pattern should be designed based on these material parameters, so that the performance of the antenna can meet requirements. Therefore, in the conventional methods of antenna design, the freedom in designing the antenna is limited by the characteristics of the materials of the circuit board or the substrate.
However, unlike conventional methods of antenna design, in the embodiment of the invention, the pattern of the antenna 31 can be determined or defined first, and then the type of filling material 33 is determined based on the radiating ability of the antenna 31 (the antenna efficiency). That is, selection of the filling material 33 is determined based on the radiating ability of the antenna. Therefore, in the proposed antenna design methods, different plastic materials may be injected based on the radiating ability requirements of the frequency band that will actually be used, so as to achieve the required transmission efficiency of the communication device.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the antenna 31 may have a low-posture design, and may be a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, a PIFA (Planer Inverse-F shape Antenna), a slot antenna, a loop antenna, or any other type of antenna.
According to an embodiment of the invention, using the 0.5 GHz˜6 GHz communication band required by the communications device as an example, the dielectric coefficient of the selected filling material is preferably between 1 and 5. For example, the dielectric coefficient of the selected filling material may be 3.5±0.5. In addition, the permeability coefficient of the selected filling material is preferably 1. In addition, the loss tangent of the filling material is preferably between 0.002 and 0.02. For example, the loss tangent of the filling material may be 0.0027±0.0005.
In the embodiment shown in
In this embodiment, the predetermined metal pattern of the antenna 61 is formed on the filling material 63 by using printing technology. According to an embodiment of the invention, the filling material 63 and the antenna 61 are configured on the top end of the full-metal back cover.
In addition, the filling material 63 and the ground plane 67 are bonded heterogeneously via the surface-mount technology. The ground plane 67 may be the metal housing of the communications device 600, such as the rear surface of the full-metal back cover as discussed above. The top end that bonding the filling material 63 and the antenna 61 may be perpendicular to the ground plane 67.
The antenna 61 may be placed adjacent to the metal component 66, but is spaced apart by a predetermined distance, for example, by at least 3 mm. In the embodiment of the invention, the metal component 66 may be an LCD display module, an LCD display panel, a battery device, a camera module, a conductor structure, a metal phone box, or another metal component of the communications device 600.
Note that in the embodiments of the invention, the pattern of the antenna 61 can be determined or defined first, and then the type of filling material 63 can be determined based on the radiating ability of the antenna 61 (the antenna efficiency). That is, selection of the filling material 63 is determined based on the radiating ability of the antenna. Therefore, in the proposed methods of antenna design, different plastic materials may be injected based on the radiating ability requirement of the frequency band actually to be used, so as to achieve the required transmission efficiency of the communication device.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the antenna 61 may have a low-posture design, and may be a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, a PIFA (Planer Inverse-F shape Antenna), a slot antenna, a loop antenna, or any other type of antenna.
According to an embodiment of the invention, using the 0.5 GHz˜6 GHz communication band required by the communications device as an example, the dielectric coefficient of the selected filling material is preferably between 1 and 5. For example, the dielectric coefficient of the selected filling material may be 3.5±0.5. In addition, the permeability coefficient of the selected filling material is preferably 1. In addition, the loss tangent of the filling material is preferably between 0.002 and 0.02. For example, the loss tangent of the filling material may be 0.0027±0.0005.
In the embodiment shown in
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the invention. It is intended that the standard and examples be considered as exemplary only, with the true scope of the disclosed embodiments being indicated by the following claims and their equivalents.
Lin, Hui, Lin, Chun-I, Hsu, Hung-Ren, Lu, Jun-Yu
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